Marseilles lures Eastern trades

Marseilles’ total throughput last year of 95.5m tons (3.6% up on 2002) was the highest since 1988. Key cargo growth came at Fos container terminal where a throughput of almost 533,000TEUs (+8.8%) was boosted by seven new services on the booming east-west trades. These services with bigger ships lifted capacity between Fos and Asia, notably China, by 30%. China strengthened its rank as the port’ s second biggest container market (after Algeria) with a 30% increase to 83,000TEUs.